roccoschili Chapter 114 The old poison of the Sky-Soaring Eagle relapses; An Daoquan performs a miraculous treat
Chapter 114 The old poison of the Sky-Soaring Eagle relapses; An Daoquan performs a miraculous treat
The morning mist carried the scent of herbs. An Daoquan was selecting medicinal materials in front of the Hundred-Eyes Cabinet in the east wing of the medical clinic. The toad venom in the celadon jar gleamed with an amber luster, and white quartz crystals formed spiderweb-like clusters in the morning light.
After arriving at Liangshan Marsh, under his guidance, Pang Xiarong had almost completely healed his injuries. He then began to work formally with his apprentice, Pang Xiarong, taking on the role of the mountain stronghold's doctor.
His first task was to clear out the original medicines in Liangshanbo and purchase the necessary supplies and medicinal materials.
Li Hanxiao originally wanted him to be a doctor and train two military doctors at the same time, but the old guy's injuries hadn't healed yet, so Li Hanxiao could only wait until he recovered before using him.
As for treating Li Ying, we'll have to wait until he's safe and sound, since Pang Xiarong's medical skills aren't up to the task.
Just then, the sound of horses neighing in alarm came from the courtyard. Four henchmen carried a door panel and smashed open the nanmu lattice door. Li Ying was curled up on a blood-stained leopard skin, his ten fingers as black as ebony.
"Dr. An, please save him!" Master Li vomited this after drinking half a cup of tea at 34:34 AM.
The one who brought Li Ying, nicknamed "Ghost Face," was Du Xing. While directing everyone to put Li Ying down, he brought over a copper basin. The dark brown vomit in the basin was corroding the bottom, and fine yellow smoke was rising from it.
An Daoquan took a small amount of the rhinoceros horn hairpin from his head and placed it on the tip of his nose. The smell of sulfur mixed with the smell of rotten eggs pierced his nasal cavity—this was hydrogen sulfide produced by the reaction of sulfides with stomach acid.
"What did he eat?"
An Daoquan asked.
"Hmm... I ate five or six eggs..."
"now it's right!"
"For the past two weeks, every day at 34:34 AM, he felt as if a hundred rats were gnawing at his heart."
Du Xingdao.
Pang Xiarong had already spread out a plain silk consultation mat next to him. An Daoquan tied Li Ying's right wrist with a three-foot-long golden silkworm thread. When the silkworm thread went around the copper hook in the beam, the morning breeze swept across the silk string and made a faint sound of the pentatonic scale.
This is the legendary "pulse diagnosis by hanging thread". Although it was so close, An Daoquan could have just taken the pulse directly. However, there was an unhealed injury on his right finger, which he was good at taking pulses. The scab on the finger affected his sense of touch. Therefore, he used "pulse diagnosis by hanging thread" to reduce the impact to a negligible degree.
He closed his eyes and concentrated, his fingertips lightly touching the three points of the silk thread, Cun Guan Chi, and suddenly felt a discontinuous tremor coming from the Shenmen point, like the flapping of a cicada's wings in autumn.
&34; sparrow-pecking pulse. &34;
When An Daoquan opened his eyes, the morning light shone directly into Li Ying's slightly open mouth—blue-black arsenic lines climbed like poison ivy along his gums.
An Daoquan used a brass tongue speculum to open the patient's mouth. Mercury-like mucus seeped out from between the dense cracks on the tongue surface, which was a sign that aconitine was eroding the salivary glands.
"He's been poisoned for half a month, and the poison hasn't cleared up yet. These incompetent doctors!"
An Daoquan shook his head, looking disappointed and disappointed, as if in his eyes, this little bit of poison was nothing!
Pang Xiarong brought over a lacquered tray, on which Xuan paper was soaked with the black blood that Li Yingyin had coughed up. An Daoquan took a copper hairpin, dipped it into the blood sample, and dripped it into a celadon bowl containing alum water.
The liquid immediately churned and emitted yellow smoke, and needle-like crystals precipitated at the bottom of the bowl; "Arsenic reacts with iron to form arsenic trioxide (a type of poisonous mineral)."
He turned the porcelain bowl, and the crystals refracted hexagonal light under the candlelight. "This is no ordinary red arsenic; it's purified realgar."
After thinking for a moment, An Daoquan came up with a solution. He immediately took out a Jingdezhen celadon mortar and instructed Pang Xiarong to put seven qian (approximately 35 grams) of melon stalks and red beans into it. The medicine mortar rolled over the purplish-red seed coat of the red beans, and the juice stained the blue stone mortar dark as if it were congealed blood.
Once the fermented black bean soup had boiled to a rolling boil, he flicked his wrist and swirled the ground medicinal powder into the soup, causing the amber liquid to immediately sparkle with fine silver flecks.
"To right the culprit and speak out is the best course of action."
An Daoquan used a rhinoceros horn funnel to pour the medicine down Li Ying's throat. Half an incense stick later, Li Ying's throat began to churn like a frog's croak, and he suddenly vomited out yellowish-green stomach contents. The second wave of vomiting brought out a tarry black liquid, which hissed as it fell into a copper basin. Coral-like arsenic and iron crystals gradually appeared at the bottom of the basin.
"That poison contained aconite, arsenic, and mercury. I don't know how much of it was added. What deep-seated hatred could cause such a deadly reaction? Each of these ingredients could kill a person. He ate too many egg yolks, which triggered the poisoning!"
As An Daoquan spoke, he ordered a soldier to fetch some freshly squeezed sheep's blood from Cao Zheng, the "knife-wielding devil." Amidst the pervasive stench, An Daoquan slowly injected the blood into Li Ying's mouth using a bamboo tube.
The globulins in the sheep's blood combined with arsenic compounds, and the vomit gradually changed from jet black to brownish-black. By the seventh vomiting, the excrement had turned the color of Ophiopogon japonicus soup. An Daoquan took some saltpeter paper to test it, and only light yellow stains appeared on the paper.
The remaining toxins in the stomach and intestines have been eliminated.
He wiped the fine sweat from his forehead. The sundial outside the window had already pointed to the third quarter of the morning, but it had taken a lot of effort.
At this moment, Li Hanxiao had just returned to the mountain after finishing up the aftermath of his battle with Zhang Shuye at the foot of the mountain. Upon hearing that "Soaring Eagle" Li Ying had been poisoned, he immediately came to visit him.
"Divine Doctor, how is Master Li? Is he alright?"
Li Han smiled and asked abruptly. At this moment, the sun was scorching the bluestone mortar and pestle. An Daoquan was grinding raw rhubarb into powder. The cross-section of the medicine, as thick as a child's arm, was covered with brocade-like patterns. When it broke in the stone mortar, it released a bitter and pungent aroma. He took the Glauber's salt crystals and dissolved them in the morning dew. The icicle-like particles refracted a cold light in the ceramic bowl and mixed with the rhubarb powder to form a reddish-gold paste.
An Daoquan did not answer immediately, but finished his work before replying, "Give me seven days, and the poison will be completely eliminated. This remedy is called General's Soup, and it is most effective at cleansing the internal organs."
An Daoquan scraped the ointment with a bamboo stick, placed it on mulberry bark paper, and rolled it into pills.
"have eaten!"
An Daoquan handed the medicine to Li Yingdao.
When Li swallowed it, his throat churned as if swallowing burning charcoal. He had to take it with three liters of well water. About half an incense stick later, his abdomen rumbled like a war drum, and then he vomited out tarry black stool.
"Ah! This taste..."
Li Hanxiao originally wanted to stay and take a look, but the aroma was so fresh that he really wanted to leave...
Two soldiers carried in a specially made chamber pot, its walls lined with lead plates to prevent corrosion. Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes "observation, auscultation, inquiry, and palpation," and observing excrement is an extremely important part of this process...
An Daoquan stirred the excrement with a copper spoon and saw that it contained shimmering silver flecks—arsenic sulfide crystals formed by the combination of arsenic and sulfur in sodium sulfate. He then swept a magnet over the filth, attracting more than a hundred metal fragments.
"The mercury has come out, now we can deal with the others..."
An Daoquan had the filth cleaned up, and the treatment continued. A cypress wood bath tub was set up in the center of the clinic. The linen wrapped around the tub was soaked with old vinegar, and the sour smell mingled with the spicy aroma of ephedra in the room.
Li Ying sat naked in the tub, his head and neck protruding from the vent of the lid, water droplets condensing on his hair dripping onto the charcoal stove with a hissing sound.
An Daoquan used a three-edged needle to prick the Dazhui acupoint, and black blood beads flowed down the groove of the copper plate into the porcelain bottle. He then wrapped the needle with moxa wool and burned the Quchi acupoint. Amidst the smell of burnt flesh, fluorescent green sweat seeped from his armpit.
The most dangerous part is the "Burning Mountain Fire" technique applied to Zusanli (ST36): when the golden needle is inserted, it is like stirring up a swamp, and with three advances and one retreat, it causes the toxic sweat below the knee to gush out.
After being steamed and dried nine times, the purple spots on Li Ying's back faded, and then blister beetle ointment was applied.
The ointment was mixed with rendered pork fat. When applied to the Guanyuan acupoint, it sizzled, and transparent blisters gradually appeared on the skin. The yellowish-brown liquid that flowed out after being popped shimmered with an iridescent oil film under the snow's light.
Li Hanxiao felt that this was not treating an illness and saving a life, but rather like turning Li Ying into a delicacy by steaming him with vinegar, and now smearing him with lard...
The subsequent treatment was even more shocking to Li Hanxiao. An Daoquan was preparing "Five Poison Cakes," and Li Hanxiao could even smell the pungent aroma of the scorpion's stinger breaking in the stone mortar.
An Daoquan kneaded the dried centipede with honey into a ball, then roasted it on a rough earthenware stove. A strange, smoky aroma wafted from the crackling sound of the caramelized shells…
An Daoquan then took out seven more poisonous bird beaks, pounded them into powder with a stone mortar and pestle, mixed them with aged mustard oil, and said, "Although this substance is poisonous, it can be used to fight poison with poison."
As he spoke, he applied the ointment to the Yongquan acupoint on the sole of Li Ying's foot, explaining, "The poison can stimulate the Qi of the kidney meridian, forcing the poison upwards."
To be honest, it might be that everyone has their own expertise, or it might be that Li Hanxiao and "Ghost Face" Du Xing were simply ignorant and had never heard of or seen these treatment methods before. But Li Hanxiao thought to himself that An Daoquan was, after all, a "miracle doctor." As the saying goes, "the more skilled one is, the bolder one becomes." The bolder his methods of treating illnesses were, the more it proved his superb medical skills.
Ordinary traditional Chinese medicine doctors wouldn't dare prescribe medicine like that...
After half a day of fussing, it was almost night. The setting sun of late afternoon shone through the window paper, casting a spiderweb-like shadow on Li Ying's back. An Daoquan was scraping his Du meridian with a red-hot Bian stone when he suddenly heard the startled cries of geese coming from the courtyard.
Upon going outside to investigate, they found three white geese pecking at the dried medicinal herbs, one of which suddenly collapsed and convulsed.
These three white geese were raised by Lin Niangzi. You would say that she raised birds and quite a few rabbits, but couldn't bear to kill them for meat. They should be considered pets, and she even fed them. According to Zhang Jiaotou, his daughter had been like this since she was a child, and Lin Chong was quite tolerant of his wife's behavior.
"Heaven is helping me!"
An Daoquan strode forward, cut open the goose's crop, and took out the undigested Pinellia tuber. He saw that the goose blood splattered on the stone slab dissolved the arsenic crystals into a colorless liquid.
According to the *Rihuazi Materia Medica*, white goose blood can neutralize the poisons of metals and minerals!
An Daoquan continued talking to himself, and Li Hanxiao wanted to stop him, but it was too late; he still had to compensate Lin Niangzi with a goose later...
No, it was two... An Daoquan was afraid one goose wasn't enough, so he went up and slaughtered another one. His movements were clean and efficient, and Li Hanxiao didn't even have time to stop him.
Li Han smiled to himself, thinking that if anyone ever told him again that he was too weak to even kill a chicken, he would get angry with them. Not to mention the strength to kill a chicken, he, An Daoquan, could even kill a goose without any problem.
At the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), two live geese were hung upside down from the roof beam. An Daoquan cut open the blood vessels in the geese's necks and let the warm goose blood drip into a porcelain bowl mixed with ferrous sulfate powder.
As the dark red liquid was poured into Li Ying's throat, he suddenly opened his eyes and spat out black blood with a metallic smell from his nose.
"Master Li, Master Li!"
The amount of blood he vomited this time was quite large, which frightened Li Hanxiao so much that he rushed over, thinking that he had a massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage!
"It's alright, get out of the way, don't block my way from saving people!"
The "miracle doctor" An Daoquan hated being disturbed when he was practicing medicine and saving lives. He pushed Li Hanxiao away, asked for the time, and said, "I'll return you to your good health at three-quarters past Hai hour!"
Li Hanxiao was relieved to hear what An Daoquan said, but he didn't want to go anywhere else at the moment. He decided to stay in An Daoquan's medicine hut. The two geese that had already been bled were taken to the kitchen by Pang Xiarong and Du Xing, and Wu Dalang was asked to pluck their feathers and stew them. After working for so long, none of the four of them had eaten. When the stew was ready, they brought it back, and each of the four of them had a goose leg to eat...
Sure enough, after the clapper sounded three times at the hour of Hai (9-11 PM), Li Ying finally stopped vomiting blood.
An Daoquan tested his saliva with saltpeter paper, and the yellowish-brown stains were much lighter than before.
"The remaining 30% of the poison remains; I need to drink rooster soup for seven consecutive days."
In addition, Li Ying also needs to take "Heart-Protecting Powder" every day at Chenshi (7-9 AM), but this stuff is very strange and needs to be taken with dew collected at Maoshi (5-7 AM).
"He needs someone to stay with him tonight, so he can sleep here with me."
As An Daoquan spoke, he used the "pulse instrument" (modified from the armillary sphere) to monitor the situation: "The Wise Star is made of twenty-eight silver threads suspended from a pear wood frame, corresponding to the twenty-eight constellations."
When the silver thread at the Tian Shu position, marked with the "Sparrow Pecking Pulse," finally came to a stop, the first drop of dew was dripping from the icicle under the eaves.
"Wow, this thing is ingenious!"
Li Hanxiao never expected that in the Song Dynasty, the "divine doctor" An Daoquan would actually be able to create such a thing. It was definitely an early medical device!
No wonder this old fellow is known as a "miracle doctor"; it turns out he really does have pioneering abilities.
A person may have superb technical skills, but if they lack the ability to innovate, such a person, especially at the limit, will not achieve particularly good results.
However, some people may not be technically proficient, but they have excellent innovative abilities and can forge their own new path.
This is no easy feat.
Thinking this over, Li Hanxiao couldn't help but think that if he could join forces with this "miracle doctor" An Daoquan, they might be able to restore some of the medical techniques from later generations to this era...
"Cough, cough, cough!"
At the same time, "Soaring Eagle" Li Ying woke up.
"Master Li, how are you feeling?"
Li Hanxiao and "Ghost Face" Du Xing stepped forward and asked.
"I feel a little weak, but I'm quite energetic..."
Li Ying answered slowly.
"It was all thanks to Physician An's skill that Master Li was saved!"
Li Hanxiao clasped his hands in a salute and addressed An Daoquan.
An Daoquan waved his hand, appearing nonchalant. "I am a doctor, and doctors have the heart of parents. Besides, Chief Li saved my life, so it's nothing. However, I enjoy good food, and as long as my good wine and dishes are not lacking, I can stay in Liangshan. By the way, the wine I just drank was quite potent and very strong. I wonder if you could give me some for medicinal purposes?"
The wine that An Daoquan just drank was a high-proof liquor from Liangshanbo. An Daoquan immediately discovered its medicinal potential. If this liquor were used as a disinfectant or for other medicinal purposes, it would be much better than the low-proof liquors that are currently in use!
After all, even when purifying medical alcohol, it requires high-concentration alcohol.